Knitting Update: Mom's Scarf and Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL

Happy Monday! It's happy for us, anyway, since it's a holiday and we both have the day off, and the sun is actually shining and the temperature is in the 40s. I spent the morning working on some knitting. My mom asked me to make her a scarf to go with her new eggplant-colored fleece jacket, and she selected the Kernel pattern from Knitty. I'm knitting it up in some delicious Malabrigo Finito in a medium gray shade. (Oh, Malabrigo, how soft and delightful you are!)

The pattern has a pretty scalloped edging (the other end of which is knit separately and Kitchener stitched on), followed by a beaded purl band, and then the main pattern. I absolutely love how the scarf is progressing after 3 repeats of the body pattern, and I keep pausing after every right-side row to admire my handiwork. The lacework looks so intricate, but it's really not that hard; I'm hoping after a few more repeats I'll be able to knit while listening to my latest Harry Potter audiobook.

It's hard to see because of the light reflection, but there are several shiny charcoal-colored seed beads knit into the purl band. I just happened to have some dark gray beads left over from a past project and they match perfectly! The beading was optional, but I really like the little bit of pizazz and sparkle they lend.

Today is the start of the second Ysolda Teague mystery shawl knit-along, Follow Your Arrow 2. I had a blast knitting the original Follow Your Arrow last year (here's my finished product) -- it's like a regular MKAL, but there are two options for each clue, meaning there are 32 possible shawls you could end up with. And this year features more freedom with colors, so I'm really looking forward to watching all the other participants' unique shawls progress each week.

I decided to use the same yarn I'm using for my mom's scarf to knit the shawl, Malabrigo Finito in Plomo. I mainly chose to do that because I already have some on hand and can go ahead and get started instead of waiting for yarn to come in the mail. I did order some darker gray in the Pearl Ten colorway for my contrast color.

It's always so exciting to get the first peek at the clues every Monday morning and I anxiously checked my e-mail as soon as I got up this morning. The first set of clues is very intriguing -- though the second option (which I think I'm more drawn to) involves learning a new cast-on technique and the first requires short rows, which I'd need to brush up on. Oh, decisions, decisions!